Disney CEO wasn’t kidding when he said the company would begin depending more on “sequels and franchises” in February. After Inside Out 2 and Moana 2 this year, we now get Mufasa: The Lion King, a precursor to the 2019 photorealistic reimagining of the beloved 1994 cartoon.
Yes, a prelude to a remake is what we’re discussing. Indeed, it is as useless as that description suggests. If you’re an avid fan of the Lion King, you might want to watch this phony cash-in on Disney+, but like so many prequels, it spends a great deal of time and effort trying to answer issues that no one was ever asking in the first place. When did Mufasa, Simba’s father, meet Sarabi, his wife? Rafiki the mandrill was where?How did Mufasa end up using Zazu the hornbill as his right-hand man—or, I guess, right-paw bird? A more pressing question might be: don’t the incredibly talented artists involved have better things to do with their time? The film’s director, Barry Jenkins, made the Oscar-winning Moonlight, and its songs are by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the most renowned Hollywood and Broadway songwriter of his generation.
But how a humble lion named Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) made his way to the beautiful Pride Lands with a friend who would later become known as Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) is the main question the movie attempts to answer. I can assure you that no one had been asking that question because it goes against everything that was established in The Lion King.
